The Bishop of the Hong Kong Diocese has assigned me with three jobs, namely, (1) looking after the Community of Sant’ Egidio, to liaise with schools (primary, secondary and university); (2) the Spiritual Director of the Legion of Mary; and (3) a member of the Diocesan Commission for Permanent Deacons, responsible for meeting with Deacons, spiritual development and taking care of the on-going formation of the Deacons and related parish pastoral work etc. In addition, I am also responsible for the individual training of the 16 Permanent Deacons. All the duties assigned are not an issue of what I want, or do not want to do. It is not a matter of whether it is easy or difficult. It is about acceptance and obedience.
Last week there was a four-day retreat for Deacons on “Poverty Spirituality”. It coincided with the feast day of two parishes. There were Deacons absent from the retreat, with not very convincing reason. It had created some misunderstanding, and the case needed to be handled and resolved. The issue is a matter of attitude. In fact, similar incident did happen in the previous election of officers in one Curia. Some members approached the Bishop and infiltrated a lot of personal and biased views in the process, resulting in some misunderstanding by the Bishop, in that he did not totally accept the Legion of Mary. Because of the individual, isolated views, it has done damage to the Legion of Mary.
The Legion of Mary has always had a solid foundation, with an established structure and Spiritual Directors (with certain “authority” to advise). However, not all priests are willing to be Spiritual Director of the Legion of Mary. In the process of identifying Spiritual Director for Curia, some Curiae may have preference of certain priest or Sister. But, all Spiritual Directors of Curiae had to be appointed by the Spiritual Director of the Comitium or the Regia. We need to be mindful of the requirements and rules clearly laid down in the Handbook. To consolidate the development of the organization, we should learn from Mary’s submission and obedience.
Recently, we note that new officers of the Concilium are stricter about some requirements, possibly because they have reviewed their experiences. We are not doing something new, but only following the guidelines of the Concilium, this is the attitude of obedience. We should reflect on the Legion of Mary in its totality and what it has in its existence. We should not allow the bad elements to influence the organization. We had to learn the faithfulness of Our Lady when facing instability.
Spiritual Director
Fr. Francis Tam
21 July 2024